The Golden Eagles get the 2025 season started with a visit to Mount Pleasant.
It is time for a new season of Marquette women’s lacrosse.
We aren’t going to get to see Marquette at home much to start the season, as three of their first four games, including the season opener, are all on the road. MU will get three tuneup games under their belt before facing two of the top three teams in the preseason Inside Lacrosse top 25 poll less than two weeks apart. Hopefully all of that early season travel and testing will prepare the Golden Eagles for Big East play, as MU is looking to get back into the conference tournament after missing out on the postseason a year ago.
Maximizing the scoring talents of Meg Bireley will be top of the list for head coach Meredith Black and her staff. Bireley comes into 2025 with MU’s career points and goals records firmly in her sights. She’s coming off a 2024 campaign where she 1) became the first Marquette player to ever score 60 goals in a season and 2) set the single season program record for goals at 69 when everything came to a halt. I’d have to imagine that there’s been a challenge to see if she can get to 70 this year, but it’s probably going to take some new production elsewhere in the lineup to ease the defensive pressure on Bireley.
The last couple of seasons have shown us that we shouldn’t be too worried about Marquette’s ability to put the ball into the net, as as the top four single season point totals have all come in the past three campaigns. MU’s biggest question for 2025 will be whether or not the defense can step up. I don’t know if there were breakdowns in MU’s field defense or if the goalie play wasn’t up to the standard set in 2023 when the Golden Eagles earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but we can definitely say that the defense took a step back a year ago. If Marquette can reverse that trend, it’s probably going to make things a little easier on the offense, too. Brynna Nixon would seem to be the incumbent starting goalie, but Mikayla Yang started three times last season as a freshman.
Game #1: at Central Michigan Chippewas (0-1)
Date: Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Time: Noon Central
Location: CMU Lacrosse Complex, Mount Pleasant, Michigan
Streaming: CMUChippewas.com, although it’s not listing there on Monday afternoon.
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWLax
Marquette is 8-2 all time against Central Michigan. MU won the first ever meeting back in 2016 and took the first three overall. MU has won four straight in the series, but both of CMU’s wins have happened when the Golden Eagles have gone on the road.
Central Michigan got their 2025 season started on Sunday afternoon when they visited preseason #13 Notre Dame. It, uh, did not go their way, as the Irish picked up the 20-7 victory. ND scored 11 straight after a 1-1 tie in the first four minutes, and there was still 10 minutes to go before halftime. Central Michigan won the final 23 minutes by a score of 5-4, so I guess that’s something?
The Chippewas are coming off a 5-13 season a year ago that included a 17-6 loss to Marquette, but all five wins came in MAC play. That gave them a 5-1 record in the conference and gave CMU the outright regular season championship. CMU went into the MAC conference tournament with the #1 seed and an eye on a third straight title and NCAA tournament appearance, but ended up with an 11-10 loss to #4 seeded Detroit Mercy in the semifinals.
This year, Central Michigan is picked to finish second in the MAC behind Robert Morris, but the Chips still picked up two first place votes from the head coaches in the league. For whatever weird reason, the MAC has the coaches also vote on who will win the conference tournament, and CMU picked up three votes in that department.
There are 26 returning players on the roster this spring, led by 2024 MAC Goalie of the Year Alexa Martel. She’s coming off making nine saves in the opener that made her CMU’s all-time leader in that category. In over 2,400 career minutes, Martel has a goals-against average of 12.53 and .458, so she’ll certainly be a riddle that the Golden Eagles will have to unlock.
On the attacking end, Central Michigan returns three of their top four scorers from last season, including 40 goal scorer Skye DePrado. Sadie Hinkle had 34 points last season on 24 goals and 10 assists, while Reagan Martinsen had 18 goals and two helpers. That’s a pretty strong base to build your offense on the following season, but only Martinsen had a decent day against Notre Dame out of the trio. She had two goals and an assist to lead the team in the opener. Hinkle managed an assist, while DePrado did not appear at all. That’s an interesting wrinkle, as there was no mention of anything wrong with her when CMU published their game/season preview on their website on the afternoon of February 7th. We’ll have to wait and see what happens there, I guess.